The secret to superhuman strength
Alison Bechdel (Author, Illustrator), Holly Rae Taylor (Colorist)
From the author of Fun Home, a graphic memoir about a lifelong love affair with exercise, set against a hilarious chronicle of fitness fads. The author delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adulthood, with every fitness craze to come down the pike: from Jack LaLanne in the 60s ("Outlandish jumpsuit! Cantaloupe-sized guns!") to the existential oddness of twenty-first century spin class. Readers will see their athletic (or semi-active) pasts flash before their eyes through an ever-evolving panoply of running shoes, bicycles, skis, and sundry other gear. But the more Bechdel tries to improve herself, the more her self appears to be the thing in her way. She turns for enlightenment to Eastern philosophers and literary figures, including Beat writer Jack Kerouac, whose search for self-transcendence in the great outdoors appears in moving conversation with the author's own. This gifted artist - and not-getting-any-younger exerciser - comes to a soulful conclusion. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others. -- Adapted from publisher's description
Print Book, English, 2021
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2021